I feel like 2008 was a good year for the Australian Marketing Blogging scene. Perhaps because I found my place in it, or just simply it had incredible growth, content and new arrivals. 2008 saw saw a fantastic community develop and some remarkable conversations heard. So raise your glasses this New Years, and say, "Cheers" to a great year of blogging gone and another one ahead....

The boys over at Talking Digital raised a really good question in a comment on a recent post of mine. Why does Twitter have such an elite feel to it? And further, why do people have a need to be ranked and judged on their social media platform depth and performance? Yes Twitter full of innovators and early adopters but it very much seems an exclusive group. People talk as though being on Twitter makes them more social media friendly than those who aren't. Would it even be necessary for a social media consultant to be on Twitter? Would you trust someone giving advice if they didn't blog? This blogger wouldn't. Surely you don't need to be on Twitter? Same with Facebook. In fact, one of my favourite bloggers doesn't even have a blog yet. It could help, but certainly not a necessity. Just like not every brand needs a social media presence, do they? Gotta love those posts with more question marks than full stops....

Thanks Simon for the heads up on this cool little tool which puts a dollar value on your blog's worth.Pigs Don't Fly comes in at a neat US$21,452.52. Not bad for a year and a half's investment. Any bidders?Obviously it's just a fun internet tool and to be taken with a hint of jest, but what's your blog worth?...

I concluded the last of my Christmas shopping today, part of which involved visiting my local Body Shop. What an experience! For the females I had to buy for, I simply told the kind girl behind the counter how old they were, what they did and what my budget was for each of them. Ten minutes later I left with suitable presents, price tags removed and everything wrapped. I wonder if there's a market for something similar but with guys?...

After waiting and waiting and waiting I finally lost my phone the other night giving me a good enough excuse to cancel my current contract. I'm now the proud owner of a black 16gb iPhone. One negative. I'm not sure if others feel this way but the best part of purchasing a new gadget, especially an Apple product, is unwrapping it and taking it out of the box. Unfortunately the Optus girl cut the plastic, opened the box, got her dirty fingerprints on it and inserted the SIM card right in front of me. Damn. Apple don't only have incredible product design, but packaging design too. So much so, that it almost becomes part of the story of your purchase. Anyway, what applications can you recommend?...

I've been meaning to post about Twitter for a while. It is fundamentally flawed. Both the concept and the design. It is ridiculously hard to read or thread conversations, if you watch more than 50 people it is easy to miss something and the layout is simply atrocious. Yet it continues to gain popularity. I thought newcomer Plurk (much less fundamentally flawed) would overthrow it, but even I turned back to Twitter eventually. I think Twitter some how manages to be successful because it's addictive. Once you've started it's hard to give it up. Although most start by asking, "Isn't it just like updating your Facebook status?", it grows on you. Stan Lee signed up just two weeks ago and I think he's now in need of a patch to control the cravings. His page used to display a badge that said he wasn't on the Twitter bandwagon, but that's changed just a little hasn't it, Stan? It's hard to explain but I think Gavin Heaton summed it up best when he said, "You get out what you put in"....

MySpace essentially had only a lifespan of two or three years for most people. Facebook is now starting to reach a similar age. Does this mean we'll soon see a new social network take over, or will Facebook do what MySpace couldn't? My opinion is the latter, at least for another few years. Facebook has hit a point where the vast majority of my networks are on it and using it. Not only to communicate, but to run events, upload photos and so some extent it's even replaced emailing and instant messaging. My investment in Facebook has been too great. With nearly 600 photos and a connection to most of my contacts, I'm not going anywhere soon. But how long will Facebook last? Could it do a Google?...

Every so often on my commute home I pick up and flick through the very reliable source that is mX. An interesting article suggested that some research has shown modern technology and Gen Y are driving changes in the English language. What I found interesting was that these changes were beyond the point of lols and 1337 speak. Due mostly to the limited characters available when sending an SMS, 404, a reference to a website fault means clueless. And the predictive text for the word cool first produces book, which as a result has given it a second meaning. Nenagh Kemp, psychologist from the University of Tasmania, suggested that this type of English was not dulling our language skills, but in fact part of the language's natural evolution. Interesting. Now please stop telling me that my generation is ruining everything. I'm off to fix the economy and deal with Global Warming...